A Happy Ending

One of the things that I enjoy most about my job as an immigration attorney is seeing how our work changes people’s lives.Recently, I had a particularly moving case that reminded me of how lucky I am to be doing what I do.

A young lady came to see us a few weeks ago.She was a United States Citizen who had successfully filed a visa petition for her husband.Because he originally entered the United States without a visa, she had also filed a separate petition to forgive this offense.Both were approved after she successfully established that she and her children would suffer extreme hardship if her husband were denied a visa to the United States.

About a year and a half ago, her husband went to the consulate in Mexico to receive his visa.When he arrived he was told that the government had made a mistake and that instead of a visa he was going to receive a permanent bar from ever returning to the United States.

This young lady was desperate.She was unable to join her husband in Mexico as she had a shared custody agreement with a child from a previous marriage and was not allowed to move her child out of the country. Also, the wife suffered from various medical illnesses and needed to keep her steady job with accompanying medical insurance in the United States.Thus, the wife was separated from her husband and the couple’s three minor children (who were also all United States citizens) were separated from their father.

Without her husband, this young lady’s life and family were falling apart.She was forced to file for bankruptcy.She lost her home.She and her three children moved into a small basement apartment.She had to take time off of work to find suitable child care.The stress caused her health issues to flare up and she had to be hospitalized.The children did not understand where their father was or what was happening and their performance in school began to suffer.This young lady contacted Senators, she hired attorneys to try to work with the consulate, she wrote letters, yet the response she received each time was that nothing could be done.

After the wife came to see us, we immediately filed a petition for review in federal court as a permanent bar never should have been applied to this individual. We asked that a federal judge review the mistakes that had been made at the consulate to separate this family.About two weeks after filing the lawsuit, the husband was rescheduled for another interview at the consulate and was given his US visa.I will never forget the gratefulness in the wife’s voice when she thanked me for reuniting their family.We at Kuck Immigration Partners are truly fortunately to be able to do what we do.